


Part of Our World

by Starryar (Breadmione)



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989), The Little Mermaid - All Media Types, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)
Genre: All efforts are appreciated, Declarations Of Love, Disney References, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Hope, Hope vs. Despair, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Parent(s), Mother-Daughter Relationship, Motherhood, Parenthood, never forget that, parenting is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29721534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Breadmione/pseuds/Starryar
Summary: On a trip to Atlantica for King Triton’s funeral, Melody and Ariel finally go on their own adventure in the sea. It was something that has been overdue, but between leading Prince Eric’s kingdom and dealing with the PTSD of almost losing her daughter to Morgana last year, it was a trip that had been put off - one that shed some light on Ariel with what it is to be a loving parent.
Relationships: Ariel & Melody (Disney)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 9
Collections: A Very Dramione/Drarry/Reylo/Disney Birthday Celebration for Caitlincheri28





	Part of Our World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Caitlincheri28](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitlincheri28/gifts).



> A very, berry happy birthday to Caitlincheri28! I want you to remember that you have a group of friends in your corner at all times!  
> \---  
> Author’s Note: There are nine references to other Disney films (not counting the ones for The Little Mermaid movies.) If you can name what the references are and the films they are from, that’d be neat! Answers are in the footnote!  
> P.S. Anything recognized in this fic belonging to Disney, DOES belong to Disney. Lyrics at the top and Bottom are from The Little Mermaid 2 as it is Melody's lullaby.

_You are my world, my darling_

_What a wonderful world I see_

_You are the song I'm singing_

_You're my beautiful Melody_

* * *

“Melody?” Ariel swam around the sunken ship wreck once, then twice. “Melody, where are you?” Panic built in her throat. _Why would she leave my sight?_ “Sebastian? Flounder!” 

Ariel swam above the wreckage in an attempt to spot a speck red or yellow to identify her bright colored friends who had accompanied the small adventure that Melody and Ariel set out on, but saw nothing save for the sand and aged wood of the ship. Panic bloomed in her chest and wrapped around her throat as if they were tentacles.

Morgana’s tentacles.

 _Where is she?_ Ariel dived down into the wreckage, this time looking inside of the ship. _She was just here, I only looked away for two seconds_ . “Melody!” Morgana, was dead - her father had made sure of it, but there was no panic like a mother’s blind panic. Ariel all but tore the waterlogged floorboards apart searching for her daughter. _Morgana is dead - has been for a year, maybe a shark -_ Ariel let out a strangled noise, searching deeper into the sunken ship. _The entire kingdom is in mourning for daddy, even the sharks know to stay away! Oh, this was a mistake -_

“Ariel!”

Ariel’s head snapped up towards where she had heard her name being called. “Flounder!” She quickly retraced her steps, using her arms to assist her in propelling her around sharp corners and holes she had searched through. It might have only taken her a minute to navigate through, but the funny thing about panic was that it seemed to slow down time and she felt as if her fins were not working fast enough to get her to the main deck. “There you are! Where’s Melody?

Flounder, her old friend and partner in crime, had the decency to wince as if he was just properly scolded. It was a look she hadn’t seen since they were teenagers themselves. “Relaaax, she’s with Sebastian-”

 _Where?”_ Ariel swam a few feet forward and looked around. Until she laid her eyes on her daughter, she was not going to _relax._ Ariel had thought she understood her father’s protectiveness of her when before she had become a mother, but she had only understood the tip of the iceberg.

“They found the grotto. We didn’t mean to wander off - Sebastian is with her.” Flounder was trying to soothe her, and even though she started in the direction that she remembered the grotto to be in, she tried to listen to him. Her stomach did not stop flipping as they swam in tense silence. 

It had been under Sebastian’s care when Melody had been tangled up with Morgana after all.

Ariel had started to worry that Queen Attica’s - Hermione’s eldest sister and now bearer of the trident - spell to keep her in her Mermaid form was starting to wear off, until she laid eyes on her formerly secret grotto. She swam with even more fever as the phantom tentacle that was panic loosened its grip on her, and she realized Attica’s spell was fine. It was her paranoia all along. 

Ariel zoomed forward hearing her daughter’s laughter, causing her to nearly collide with the pre-teen when Melody appeared from behind the side of the grotto with no warning. “Mom!” Melody was shocked to see her mother appear so soon and she removed Sebastian from her tail fins. He quickly lept from the young girl's fingers towards Ariel, using his arms to paddle towards her.

“Your Majesty - I tried to stop har!” His accent was as thick as ever, but not as thick as the regret in his voice. Ariel held her hands out to him so he could land onto her hands, but aside from that she paid him no mind. Ariel’s blue eyes searched over her daughter’s form. She wanted to grab her, make sure that she was physically there and unharmed, but she reminded herself that she was making an attempt to be less overbearing. A year later and she was still terrified she might give her daughter a reason to leave again. “It’s my fault that we-”

“It’s okay, Sebastian.” Ariel said, placing the crustacean on her head like she had so many times in her youth. Melody glanced up at her mother and the guilty look she had deepend. It was then Ariel realized that the reason why Melody and Sebastian quieted, was due to the fact they both expected her to yell and fly into a frenzy.

Even if Ariel had not been feeling heavy with low energy from her father’s passing, she had been attempting to avoid hovering over Melody like she used to. It hurt her to know she had not been doing as well as she thought she had. “You found my treasure cove, I see.” Ariel tried to brighten up the conversation by bringing focus back to the adventure they had set out on. 

Attina had suggested that Ariel show her daughter around as it was the first time they had visited Atlantica _together_ . Ariel had visited recently to wait on her father as he lay dying and Melody had only been able to visit the other kingdom she was a part of when she had stolen King Triton’s trident last year. It should have been more of a special occasion, one experienced on a happier note, but it wasn’t. Ariel wanted to do nothing else but help her older sister arrange the funeral, but Attina would have none of it - not with Melody present. Their argument had Attina resort to _ordering_ Ariel to take her daughter out with attaché to supervise.

It was the first time Ariel hadn’t heard Sebastian complain about ‘ _babysitting’._

“We did!” Melody returned her mother’s weak smile with a wide one, causing small air bubbles to escape her ivory teeth. She turned around and pointed to the top of the grotto, where Ariel already knew without looking that there was a hole at the top - the only course of light. “I was just looking for a way in since Sebastian wouldn’t tell me.” Melody playfully sneered at him, but Sebastian puffed out his chest.

“I told her we were not to go without you!” He announced proudly, causing Flounder to roll his eyes.

A small laugh escaped Ariel’s lips with the familiarity of their actions and she thought about how even though it had been over thirteen years since she had Sebastian and Flounder in her company for an extended time, they hadn’t changed much. It was an odd comfort she appreciated.

“The entrance is just this way,” A swish of her tail, and Ariel was leading them to the entrance of her treasure cove. 

Her eyebrows raised at the sight at the entrance though, because instead of the large, flat boulder that had originally been used, there now was a large door. It was made to blend in with the natural rock of the grotto, but if someone was close enough, they would be able to see Atlantica’s crest inlaid with mother of pearl.

Ariel was rendered speechless once again, but instead of it being due to fear, now it was due to the overwhelming emotion she felt from the love of her father. In his final days, Triton admitted to returning to her grotto and repairing what he could from the argument they had so long ago. He admitted to hoping that one day he would have been able to show Ariel and Melody himself, but the doctors had already made it clear that his days were numbered. It started to sink in why Attina was adamant Ariel came here today: she needed _this_. A connection to her father - her closest family.

Steeling herself, Ariel pushed open the door with much more ease than she would have with the boulder. She held it open while everyone swam inside. When she reached the opening of the grotto, a hand immediately flew to cover her mouth.

The last time Ariel had been here, it was identical to the shipwreck she and Flounder had frequented; everything was in shambles, and most of it destroyed, all done by her father’s hand. Now though, her former safe haven had looked even more grand than it had ever before.

Instead of the sea floor, it was completely covered with anemones that housed clownfish and regal tangs. Atop the natural rock settee that she had lounged on to admire her collection, was a carpet imported from the Jordan Rivers. Then the _shelves_ \- there wasn’t a free inch of space in sight! Triton had taken the liberty of seeking out human items to fill the grotto with anything he could not salvage. With a swish of her tail, Ariel floated towards the nearest shelf where she felt her tear ducts start to painfully tingle.

“Mom, why are you making that face?” Melody was studying her mother carefully, her head tilted to the side.

While Ariel had never been ashamed of her emotions, she was grateful that being underwater meant no one would be able to _see_ her tears. “Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?” She waved a hand to motion at the stuff before them, hoping she appeared to be overcome with nostalgia.

Melody blinked once, but picked up a fork to look into it. “This is… Wonderful, mom.” Ariel didn’t miss how Melody sounded entirely unconvinced as she traded the fork for a ceramic tea cup. Ariel recognized it was one of her original items and was elated to see the only damage was a small chip in the pink and purple design on the rim. “I thought you said you went treasure hunting.”

Ariel glanced back at the shelves, realizing how this probably all looked like junk to someone who was raised on land. This was just normal things to her and she couldn’t see the magic it really was - at least not without Ariel explaining it to her. “Well, if you don’t like it, set the _thingamabob_ back down.”

Melody’s eyebrows came together in confusion, but she set it down. “A what?”

Ariel tried to make her face indifferent, but one corner of her mouth was pulled up in a smile. She made to pull a pearl necklace from a jewelry box that was also from her original collection, but a purple coconut crab yanked it back. “A _thingamabob_. I had started my collection when I was your age. I used to think everything under the sun and the sand was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but I didn’t know what humans called most things - it’s not like I could just swim up to them and ask.” Sebastian made an indignant noise and she shot him a playful look, knowing he was thinking about all the times he had failed to stop her from going to the surface anyway. “So I relied on Scuttle to name my things. Growing up as a Mermaid made me desperate to understand a world I fell in love with.” Ariel cast her eyes up to admire the collect her father had built. She wondered how if he had ever come to admire the human race’s handiwork.

Melody’s emerald colored eyes widened, “ _Scuttle_? No way! So everything here has a funny name?” 

Ariel nodded with faux self-pity in her features. Even at Melody’s young age, she knew the seagull was a bit of a character. Ariel looked over the items she did not recognize before pointing at the portrait of a young girl surrounded by seven dwarves. The young girl was whose lips were red as a rose, hair black as ebony, and skin white as snow held a small resemblance to her own daughter and she knew that her father selected it with Melody in mind. “That’s a _Whozit._ ” She then pointed to a spinner’s wheel where the spindle had a cork carefully placed over the needle to avoid anyone from hurting themselves. “That’s a _Whatzit._ ” 

Ariel had pointed at the glass slipper that was by Sebastian to explain she once called shoes _gizmos_ , but Melody pointed to a black umbrella with a green parrot’s head for a handle, excitement in her voice at the game. “And this?”

“That’s a supercal-” Flounder stopped to make a face before trying to remember the name. “A supercala- no, a superfragis-” He soon gave up and looked at Ariel for assistance.

“It’s a _supercalifragilisticexpialidocious_ .” Ariel was grinning wide as she reminisced how many times she asked _Scuttle_ to repeat the thirty-four letter long word before getting it right.

“ _Nonsense_ is what it should be called!” Sebastian remarked as he swam over to something that Ariel would probably loop in to her collection of _gadgets._ The cylindrical metal tube had once been yellow, but it was in the process of turning orange with rust, save for the half filled, red meter on its side. “That seagull knows nothin’, I’ll tell ya!” Sebastian was getting ready to start ranting, but Flounder interrupted him.

“Aw, don’t be such a guppy.” Flounder shot at the crimson crab, but they both laughed at the inside joke Melody had yet to learn.

“Did grandpa really put all of this stuff in here?” Melody swished her coral tail with ease, as if she had a tail her entire life. Ariel almost hated to admit that she had been wondering the same, but as she watched her daughter flick her tail with ease to join her side, she knew the answer.

“Yes,” instead of thinking about the disagreements she and her father would have over humans, and Ariel's decisions, she thought of their bond and the pure love that he had for her. The grotto wasn’t just filled with _stuff_ . It was filled with love. She would have never thought that her father would be able to put aside his hate for humans, but it was evident to her that he had long before she was aware of it. Like his kingdom, she knew he treated his projects with the same meticulous care. This grotto was him trying to connect with Ariel, to understand the world she had left his for. He _missed_ her and filled her sacred cove with items that she would have adored - to remind him of _her,_ as if to rebuild a lost bridge. “He did.”

Ariel took her daughter’s hand into both of hers and Melody sensed the seriousness that her mother had adopted. “Melody, I need you to understand that I will always be here for you. I want you to come to me, and talk to me when you need to.” Out of human habit, Ariel tried to tuck a lock of Melody’s black hair behind her ear, only for it to float back into the air again. “I know I always talk about ‘your world’ and ‘my world’ as if they’re two different places - as if _we’re_ in two different places, but we’re not. Do you understand?” Melody nodded her head, despite her slight confusion being clear on her face. Ariel pulled Melody, whispering three precious words into her ear: “I love you.”

Melody’s thin arms wrapped around Ariel’s body. “I love you too, mom.”

They stayed like that and Ariel silently promised herself that it was okay if Melody did not understand her now, because she would try until she did - and even then she would not stop. Ariel was only half human, but she vowed she would improve her communication skills, she vowed not to let her emotions rule over her actions, and she vowed - above anything else - that she would not let a rift come between her and her daughter again. 

Ariel almost wanted to laugh as she cried on Melody’s shoulder as she realized it was only after his death, she finally understood her father. She could only hope that she made her love clear to Melody before her own death.

* * *

_This is your world, my darling_

_One world, the land and sea_

_My hope for you for always_

_Is that your heart will hold part of me._

**Author's Note:**

> Disney Easter Eggs: (In order of appearance) Nemo: Anemone’s, clownfish, regal blue / Aladdin: Carpet draped on sette (Jordan River is by Agrahbah) / Moana: Crab in jewelry box / Sleeping Beauty: Chip is the cup Melody picks up / Snow White: Portrait / Sleeping Beauty: Spinning Wheel / Cinderella: Glass slipper / Mary Poppins: The Umbrella / Monster’s Ink: Yellow metal tube that Sebastian perched on.


End file.
